Way to test alternate IPv4 routes

bgpicmpipv4ipv6

i am using Hurricane Electric's Tunnel Broker service to get IPv6 connectivity.

TunnelBroker lets you have access to the IPv6 Internet by using a standard IPv6 tunneling protocol. You send IPv6 packets, wrapped inside IPv4 packets, to one of their servers. There the IPv6 packet is dumped onto the Internet.

My IPv4 tunnel end-point is in Chicago; and it goes through Bell Canada (AS577) to get there. Bell is a horrible, horrible, network provider. My ISP peers with Bell Canada, but they also peer with Level 3 Communications (AS3356). Ideally i would ask my ISP to change their routes to bypass Bell:

enter image description here

This new route does involve a third autonomous system (TaliaNet – AS1299) before reaching my tunnel endpoint. That's why i want to know what the route might be like. i'd like to know:

  • the number of hops
  • transit time
  • etc.

Note: There are other available routes between Level 3* and **Hurricane Electric.

Is there any way to "test" this alternate route? Is there any way to "direct" ICMP packets?

Looking Glass

This might answer my own question, as it might be the only way. But using Level 3's Looking Glass, i can run a traceroute from their Detroit server (where my ISP connects to Level 3) to my preferred HE endpoint:

Show Level 3 (Detroit, MI) Traceroute to 209.51.181.2
  1 ae-8-8.ebr2.Chicago1.Level3.net (4.69.133.242) 4 msec 8 msec 4 msec
  2 ae-5-5.ebr2.Chicago2.Level3.net (4.69.140.194) 8 msec 12 msec 8 msec
  3 ae-2-52.edge3.Chicago3.Level3.net (4.69.138.168) 4 msec 4 msec 8 msec
  4 gblx-level3-10g.Chicago3.Level3.net (4.68.62.26) 4 msec
    gblx-level3-10g.Chicago3.Level3.net (4.68.63.66) 8 msec 4 msec
  5 HURRICANE-ELECTRIC-LLC-New-York.TenGigabitEthernet1-3.ar5.NYC1.gblx.net (64.209.92.98) [AS3549 {GBLX}] 32 msec 24 msec 24 msec
  6 10gigabitethernet8-3.core1.chi1.he.net (72.52.92.178) [AS6939 {HURRICANE}] 24 msec 24 msec 28 msec
  7 tserv1.chi1.he.net (209.51.181.2) [AS6939 {HURRICANE}] 24 msec 28 msec 24 msec

In which case everything is great until they hand the traffic off to the Hurricane Electric gateway machine.

Bonus

Edit: Why not Serverfault? Because of their rules:

Server Fault is for Information Technology Professionals needing expert answers related to managing computer systems in a professional capacity.

i'm not an Information Technology Professional managing a computer system in a professional capacity. This is me, at home, on a Friday night, eating Life Cereal, dinner with friends, dinner alone, watching tv alone.

Best Answer

The short answer is 'no'. The IP feature you are looking for is the Source Route Option. It is used to determine how a packet is routed at the sender instead of in the network. Because of all the problems that using that option can cause (almost?) nobody will accept and/or honour it.

Routing policy decisions are made inside an AS (=Autonomous System). If you only connect to one ISP then that is where you route your traffic. Once you send your traffic to them it's up to them to decide where to send it next. Usually these decisions are based on what the receiving network advertises through BGP (=Border Gateway Protocol).

The AS graph you are looking at is a graph the other way around. It shows what AS7057 advertises, so this influences how traffic flows towards AS7057, not how data from AS7057 reaches other networks. It might be the same, but it certainly doesn't have to be.

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